"Ethereum"

There are 3 major cryptocurrencies that have been underated. Investing in those cryptocurrencies are opportunities a lot of people have not yet discovered. The cryptocurrencies that are underated include ethereum(ETH),bitcoin cash(BCH) and Litecoin(LTC). These cryptocurrencies can be invested on the platform underatedcryptos.store

Are you currently holding some Ethereum coins and want to know what the future holds for the project? Or maybe you’re wondering how high will Ethereum go in 2020? Either way, I’ve got all of your questions covered!

By the way, did you know that if you bought $10 worth of Ethereum coins at the start of 2016, they would have been worth over $10,000 at the end of 2017!?

Anyway, in this Ethereum price prediction guide, I am going to start by briefly explaining what the Ethereum project actually is, followed by a quick overview of what you need to consider before acting on a price prediction.

Following that, I am then going to discuss some popular price predictions that have been made by different analysts. Then I will give you my opinion on whether I think it’s a good investment or not.

So, what are you waiting for? Let’s start by finding out what Ethereum actually is!

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum was founded in 2015 by a Russian-Canadian developer called Vitalik Buterin. It is a blockchain protocol that allows people from all over the world to send and receive funds without needing a third party.

However, unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum can do so much more than perform financial transactions. It became the first ever blockchain project to host something called smart contract technology. A smart contract is a piece of code that allows people to enter into an agreement without the need for an intermediary.

Once certain conditions happen, the smart contract is able to automatically move funds from one person to another. Just like smart contracts, every single transaction that ever occurs in the Ethereum system is available to view on the public blockchain, making the network transparent.

In terms of performance, Ethereum is able to confirm a movement of funds in about 16 seconds. The blockchain is able to scale a maximum of 15 transactions each second, which is much less than other smart contract protocols, however, I will discuss later what they are planning to do to increase this.

So, now that you know what Ethereum actually is, in the next part of my Ethereum price prediction 2020 guide, I am going to discuss the importance of taking price prediction guides with caution.

Warning About Price Predictions

I thought it would be a good idea to quickly talk about some of the things you should consider when reading somebody else’s price prediction. In reality, no one can predict the Ethereum future. While some people get predictions right, there are others who get them wrong.

No prediction is ever guaranteed to come true because if it was, we would all be very rich and wealthy! It is important to make sure you always do your own independent research and never invest just because you like the sound of a price prediction.

The cryptocurrency market is one of the most volatile industries in the world, with prices often going up and down without any clear reason as to why. However, when I analyze price predictions, I think the most important things to consider are real-world events.

This includes things like regulations, future developments, improved technology, and partnerships. On the other hand, other people prefer to use chart analysis to predict the future, so it’s up to you which method you’d prefer to trust.

So, now that you know the things to consider when reading predictions, the next part of my Ethereum price prediction 2020 guide is going to discuss some popular price predictions.

Ethereum Price Prediction 2020

Bobby Ullery

The first prediction I wanted to talk to you about was released by an online analyst called Bobby Ullery. The model that Ullery uses is based on the global economy and the assumption that blockchain technology will play a much bigger role in international trade.

According to the analyst, Bitcoin and Ethereum will each hold 25% of the entire cryptocurrency industry, which he predicts will have a total market capitalization of $4.5 trillion in 2020.

Market capitalization is used to calculate the total value of a cryptocurrency, much in the same way as real-world companies are valued. It is achieved by multiplying the current market price of a coin by the total amount of coins in circulation. For example, if the value of the coin was worth $20 and there were 10 million coins in circulation, then the total market capitalization would be $200 million.

Now, in the case of Ethereum, although there is no fixed supply, Ullery uses a total coin circulation of 100 million as this is what Vitalik Buterin has suggested will happen.

So, considering all of the above, this particular Ethereum price prediction 2020 believes that Ethereum will be worth $11,375. This would give Ethereum a total market capitalization of over $1 trillion! So, is this possible?

For Ullery’s Ethereum price prediction 2020 to come true, it would need to increase its all-time high of just over $1300, by 775%. This actually isn’t an unrealistic prediction when you consider that Ethereum increased its price by 10,000% in 2017! But what do you think?

LongForecast

The next Ethereum price prediction 2020 I wanted to discuss was that by a prediction service called LongForecast. This particular analyst is less positive about the future price of Ethereum.

As you will see from the screenshot below, LongForecast estimates that in January 2020, the price of Ethereum will be $724. Then over the next 6 months, they think that the price will go up and down, ranging from a low of $474 up to a high of $672.

These figures are well below the all-time high that Ethereum experienced in late 2017, so the analyst isn’t confident in its future. However, the biggest problem with this prediction service is that they do not give any explanation as to how they made the forecast.

This is really important information, but it seems to have been left out. In my opinion, for a price prediction to be valid, there needs to be a reason for the prediction that has been stated. This is why you should be wary of the predictions you find online.

CoinKir

Moving on, the next Ethereum price prediction 2020 I found was by CoinKir. CoinKir uses technical price analysis to make predictions for the future. This is when you look at historical price movements and look for trends that could happen again in the future.

This is a popular strategy used in real-world financial markets. However, financial markets often have over 50 years of data to look at, which the cryptocurrency markets don’t. Nevertheless, according to CoinKir, the price of Ethereum is going to do really well in 2020.

Their chart analysis expects Ethereum to start 2020 at around $720 and then slowly increase. By the end of 2020, they expect Ethereum to more than double, to $1488. This is an interesting prediction because it means that they don’t expect Ethereum to break its all-time high until November 2020.

If it does reach $1488, then it would give Ethereum a total market capitalization of approximately $148 billion. If this prediction is correct, it would mean that Ethereum will need another 18 months before it is ready to go on a big pricing run. This could be the case, as the team is working on various technical developments, which I will talk about below.

So, now that you know about some of the most popular predictions for the future of ETH, the next part of my Ethereum price prediction 2020 guide is going to look at some of the real-world events that could affect its price!

Ethereum Real-World Events

You might remember how I discussed earlier that the Ethereum blockchain is only able to process about 15 transactions per second. This is actually a really big problem for the project as it needs to increase significantly to handle global demand.

For example, in late 2017, a new decentralization application (dApp) called CryptoKitties was processing so many transactions that it almost brought the network down! This was just one dApp, so think about how bad it would be if other dApps become more and more popular?

As a result, there are now other smart contract blockchains that perform much better than Ethereum. For example, NEO can process transactions in the thousands per second and there are other blockchains being built that claim to be able to handle millions per second!

The Ethereum team have recognized these challenges and have a few ideas which they are working on, with each of them holding the potential answer to “Why is Ethereum going up” in the future.

So, let’s start with proof-of-stake!

Proof-of-stake

Every blockchain platform has its own “consensus mechanism”, which determines how transactions are verified on the network. Ethereum uses the same model as Bitcoin, which is called “proof-of-work”.

The proof-of-work mechanism creates really complex puzzles that no human can solve, so they require powerful computers instead. Providing that you have the right equipment, you can connect your device to the system to help solve the puzzle. If you are successful, you earn the cryptocurrency as a reward. This is called mining.

However, Proof-of-work requires a very large amount of electricity. Furthermore, because the puzzle becomes more and more difficult as more users start to mine the cryptocurrency, you need really expensive hardware to have a chance of winning the reward.

This is why Ethereum wants to switch its consensus mechanism over to proof-of-stake. The model works in a different way to proof-of-work as it makes it fairer for other people to get involved in the mining process, and it also requires far less electricity.

Using Proof-of-Stake, your chances of winning the mining reward are based on the amount you have “staked”, which means the number of coins you have invested in the system. The theory is that the more coins you have, the more motivation you will have to ensure the blockchain remains safe and secure.

So, that’s Proof-of-Stake. The next part of my Ethereum price prediction guide is going to look at how they plan on improving the number of transactions the network can process at any given time.

Sharding

Sharding is a protocol that the developers are working on to change the way that transactions are verified. Under the current model, every single “node” that is supporting the blockchain needs to confirm every transaction that has been submitted.

Note: A node is used to describe a device that has been connected to the blockchain to help verify transactions. The more nodes there are, the more secure the network is. At the time of writing in June 2018, Ethereum has more than 16,000 individual nodes!

Anyway, as an example, let’s imagine that 100 transactions have been sent within the Ethereum system. Which means that they must all be verified by the blockchain before they are confirmed as valid. This would mean that all 16,000 nodes would need to verify all 100 transactions individually, which isn’t very efficient.

Sharding does things differently though. It puts nodes into groups. Each group of nodes is called a “shard”, with different groups working on different parts of a transaction. Ultimately, it creates a more efficient way to confirm transactions and allow the network to increase the amount it can process every second.

Plasma

The plasma protocol is concerned with unnecessary data and wants to remove it from the main blockchain to free up space. For example, when somebody creates a new smart contract, it is automatically posted to the main Ethereum blockchain. Even though the smart contract might not be completed for a long time (or possibly never at all) it is still sent to the blockchain.

This has caused a lot of problems because nodes still need to verify the transactions, meaning that it slows down the network. The plasma solution is planning on creating an additional layer on top of the main blockchain, which will be used for incomplete smart contracts.

Once the smart contract is in operation, it can then be sent to the main blockchain. Vitalik Buterin has stated that he is looking to install both plasma and sharding, which means that if successful, the Ethereum blockchain could soon be processing thousands, potentially millions of transactions per second!

If this is the case, there is a very good chance that these will be the reason why is Ethereum going up in the near future, as many analysts believe these problems are holding the project back from growing. However, once implemented, who knows how high can Ethereum goes.

However, it is important to remember that all three of the above solutions are still in their very early days, so there is no knowing when they will be truly ready. The best thing to do is to regularly check for updates online.

So, now that you know about the technical improvements the team is working on and how it could affect its price, the next part of my Ethereum price prediction 2020 guide is going to look at what I think may happen…

How High Will Ethereum Go in My Opinion

Before I discuss my opinion for the Ethereum future, I wanted to make it clear that I am not giving you an investment or financial advice. At the end of the day, nobody knows the answer to “How high can Ethereum go?”

Firstly, Ethereum is the first and original smart contract blockchain project, which is why it has been the second most popular cryptocurrency for so long. People not only trust the platform, but they know that the team is really talented. Therefore, I think that Ethereum will always be the number one smart contract platform.

However, there is no guarantee, simply because the developers really need to sort out Ethereum’s scalability problems. It’s great that they are working on lots of different ideas, but if they take too long or it’s not successful, then other blockchains could take over.

As I mentioned early, blockchains that can process thousands of transactions per second already exist, and others are in the process of being built.

But do I think Ethereum can do it? Of course! On the other hand, the cryptocurrency markets are still in their very early days, so there is no guarantee what is going to happen. People talk about future regulation is a problem, but in my opinion, this will be a good thing.

For example, Japan has completely regulated the cryptocurrency industry in the same way that they regulate their financial services sector. This has resulted in Japan having one of the largest trading volumes for cryptocurrency, as well as having over 200,000 different real-world stores that accept it.

Ethereum Price Prediction 2020: Conclusion

So, that’s the end of my Ethereum price prediction 2020 guide! If you have read it from start to finish, you should now have a really good idea of what the project is and what they plan to do.

I also presented you with various popular price predictions. Some of them were positive, and others weren’t so positive. So, I guess you will have to make your own decision as to where you think it’ll be in 2 years’ time.

I also discussed some technical developments that could affect the price of Ethereum in the near future. This included proof-of-stake, sharding and plasma upgrades. If they are successful, that will probably be the biggest reason to explain why is Ethereum going up!